His Treasure Seekers

Wrapping Up Week 23 (2014-15)

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Deanna

This was one of those weeks where I’m amazed we managed to get any schoolwork done at all. In addition to our regularly scheduled activities (ballet, gymnastics, music, park day…), three of the kids had to go in to the doctor for their regular check-ups. Then you throw in the fact that I am in the blessed throes of first trimester nausea (we found out 3 days after I wrote about my Word for 2015!), and you can understand my amazement that we somehow got anything accomplished this week.

Bible/Circle Time

Ian is really enjoying Little Pilgrim’s Progress, and it I weren’t having him write a little for each chapter, we’d probably read a lot more than two each day. Still, I think it’s good to pace ourselves, as it’s giving him time to really think about the story. I found a Pilgrim’s Progress game on eBay, which Ian was really excited to set up and play. Some of the characters and places are from parts of the book we’ve yet to read, and he’s eager to find out more about them now that he’s seen them in the game.

Math

In our continued attempts to help Ian master his addition facts, I decided to try listening to songs from Mondo Math that cover the facts from 1-12 using various fun musical styles. I’m not sure if they’re going to help Ian, but Elijah absolutely loves them, especially the second half of the songs, where they don’t say the answers and he gets to call them out himself. I can guarantee that Elijah is going to have his facts memorized long before first grade. Hopefully Ian’s natural competitiveness will help push him to learn them as well, rather than being outdone by his little brother.

He’s doing pretty well with his daily practice on xtramath.org, though some new facts were added in this week, which threw him for a loop. When he scores well, he’s rewarded with free time on Mathletics, which ironically he’s been choosing to spend in the section with songs for learning his times tables. I pray that will be a less painful process for him than the addition facts!

Through it all, he’s still working through MEP (Year 2). I adore MEP, but it definitely requires quite a bit of teacher involvement, so I’m wondering if it’s going to be the best choice for us next year when we’re adjusting to a new baby. I’m considering letting Ian take some time off MEP to do something he can work on more independently while letting Elijah catch up (he’s about halfway through MEP Year 1). Then they can move onto Year 3 together so I’d only be teaching one math lesson each day. This idea has been in my head for almost a year, but the new baby is making me think about it more seriously. My main hesitation is simply in not letting Ian move forward when he’s been doing so well. But it would probably do him good to just sit on what he’s learned for a while.

Everything Else

Apart from math and spelling, our week was pretty thin. We managed to keep our heads above water as far as our Ambleside Online, Year 1 readings. We got through a few chapters of Our Little Roman Cousin of Long Ago, and covered lessons 29-31 on skin in The Human Body (including fingerprints, which led to a messy time of exploration), but we didn’t manage to do any notebooking or extras of any kind.

Upcoming Reviews

I’m currently reviewing several products, especially now that the Schoolhouse Review Crew is back for 2015. Watch for more about these soon!

The Berenstain Bears and the Biggest Brag (book)
In Freedom’s Cause (audio drama)
products from Koru Naturals
Math Analogies, Beginning from Critical Thinking Co. (software)

Posted in Ambleside Online

Theo: God’s Love (video review)

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Deanna

God's Love (Volume 1) Home Edition - DVD

I recently heard a mom talking about the Theo Bible story videos her kids had been enjoying, and since I’m always looking for resources to help teach my children about Scripture, I headed over to www.theopresents.com to find out more. Right away I noticed the company’s emphasis on teaching children God’s Word, and I was delighted to get a chance to review the three episodes from the DVD Theo: God’s Love.

The main characters are two mice, Belfry and Luther, and the old pastor with whom they live, whose name is Theo. Each episode follows the same basic formula: Belfry and Luther face a problem, then Theo explains a basic doctrine that addresses that problem, followed by a Bible story to illustrate the point.

Quick Summaries

In “Saving Faith” Theo teaches about the meaning of “faith,” whether it be in false things such as superstitions or true faith in God. Then he tells the story of Abraham and Sarah following God to the land of Canaan.

In “Loving Obedience”, Theo teaches about ways we can please God by obeying His Word. Then the Bible story of Jonah.

In “Forgiveness,” Belfry, eats the special treats Luther has been saving. Theo teaches them the meaning of the word forgiveness and then tells the parable of “The Unforgiving Servant.” He shares about how our sin puts us in debt to God, and how God forgives us.

Our Thoughts

I loved the beautiful animation and solid teaching. It is rare to find such a well thought out resource for teaching theology to children. The characters were fun and likeable, and I loved the way Theo was often singing through an old hymn. My children were immediately drawn in, and their only complaint was that they wanted more to watch. Each episode is about 9-10 minutes long, with three episodes on each of the five DVDs currently available.

In addition to the videos themselves, I was impressed by the free parent guides offered on the website (in addition to coloring and activity pages). For each episode, the parent guide gives Scripture references for the verses used in the video, as well as discussion questions, a “family activity,” and 6 days of family devotions. These would be a wonderful resource for families looking for ways to spend time together in the Bible.

If you’re interested in checking out the Theo series, the 5-minute bonus episode “Good News” is available to download for free. Other episodes are available for purchase on DVD or as downloads from the Theo website. I hope you enjoy Theo as much as we did!

DISCLAIMER: I received the digital downloads of the three episode from God is Love for free in exchange for my honest review.

Posted in Bible lessons, Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

Wrapping Up Week 22 (2014-15

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Deanna

This week felt more like we were mostly back into the swing of things after the holidays, and we’ve fallen into a workable routine.

Bible/Circle Time

The kids are making their way through the Animated Stories from the New Testament videos first thing each morning as they eat breakfast. Then after they’ve gotten through their morning responsibilities we continue reading through two chapters from Little Pilgrim’s Progress each morning, with Ian creating pages for his book. His pictures were all starting to look alike (two stick people), so I told him he needed to put a little more effort into making sure the pictures helped tell about each chapter. I did see some improvement after that discussion. Now we need to work on making sure every word gets written. (He narrates back to me and then helps me come up with a sentence, which I write down for him to copy.)

Math

This week we worked on learning the 3s on the times table. While I didn’t push Ian to memorize them at this point (though the lesson plans do suggest it), he was definitely becoming familiar with them. Since he’s still working on this addition facts on xtramath.org, however, I’d rather he save his multiplication facts for later. I don’t know of any other curriculum that expects 1st graders to know them, so I’m not too worried about it.

Literature

So far in our readings for Ambleside Online, Year 1, Ian hasn’t been too fond of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, but this week I realized that the problem may have been that I had him listening to an audiobook as we drove. This week we read about the Armadillos, and he didn’t want me to put the book down. Kipling does have a unique style of writing, and I think perhaps the accent of the reader made it hard for Ian to understand.

History Cycle

We continued reading Our Little Roman Cousin of Long Ago by Julia Darrow Cowles. Ian enjoyed looking through pictures from my first trip to Rome many years ago, and especially seeing the same places I told him about when we watched the first episode on Imperial Rome from Kid’s Animated History With Pipo and the first episode on ancient Rome from Drive Thru History.

Science

This week we talked about the respiratory system (lessons 27-28 in The Human Body from God’s Design for Life). Ian like the activity comparing our lung capacities by seeing how big we could blow up a balloon using only one breath.

These lessons sent Ian running to get our copy of one of his favorite books, See Inside Your Body. He also enjoyed catching up on the pages about circulation and respiration in The Usborne Human Body Sticker Book.

Upcoming Reviews

I’m currently reviewing several products, especially now that the Schoolhouse Review Crew is back for 2015. Watch for more about these soon!

Theo: God’s Love (video)
The Berenstain Bears and the Biggest Brag (book)
In Freedom’s Cause (audio drama)
products from Koru Naturals
Math Analogies, Beginning from Critical Thinking Co. (software)

Posted in Ambleside Online

Wrapping Up Week 21 (2014-15)

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Deanna

I’m a bit late in writing about last week because life got crazy as we approached the weekend. Between two family parties and then a Sunday morning trip to urgent care with two sick kids, I just couldn’t find time to write about our first week back after the holidays until now.

Bible/Circle Time

As I mentioned last week, I’ve given up trying to do a morning Bible time in addition to what we do in the evenings. Instead, I’ve been putting on a Bible story video each day while the kids eat breakfast.

We started our school time reading two chapters of Little Pilgrim’s Progress each day that we were home. On Monday as an introduction, we watched the video The John Bunyan Story from the Torchlighters series.

I’m having Ian put together his own book telling the story, so we first did a page “About the Author,” and then I hope to have him do one for each chapter of the book. (Some days we combined both chapters on one page.) Once we’re finished (if we keep it up), he’ll have his own book of the story. This week he finished four pages:

I’m also requiring Elijah to stay with us while we read the story each day, though he doesn’t have any written assignments for it.

Math

Ian started into multiplication and division this week with lessons 91-95 in Mathematics Enhancement Programme (Year 2). I was surprised at how quickly he caught on. It almost seemed easier for him than addition and subtraction. He’s back to working on xtramath.org each morning to keep trying to master his addition facts.

Literature

We didn’t quite get caught up on our literature selections in Ambleside Online, Year 1, but we did make some good progress. For the first time, Ian really got into our story in James Herriot’s Treasury for Children. We were just supposed to read “Blossom Comes Home,” but he wanted to keep reading, so we went a head a little. He also requested the stories as we were driving since I keep the audiobook CDs in our van. It’s always hard to win him over to new audio resources at first (he loves his favorites too much to risk branching out), and I think sitting with the book helped him realize what great stories these are.

History Cycle

We finished up learning about Alexander the Great before Christmas, so we started moving on to the ancient Romans this week. I introduced Rome by reading the story of Romulus and Remus from Story of the World, Vol. 1 by Susan Wise Bauer and Chapter 30: “Picking A Fight” in A Child’s History of the World by V.M. Hillyer. Then we started Our Little Roman Cousin of Long Ago by Julia Darrow Cowles.

Science

In The Human Body we covered lessons 24-26 on the circulatory system. Ian added the heart to his life-sized chart of the body from the My Body unit from Teacher Created Resources. (I downloaded it from CurrClick, but it’s also available as a book from Amazon). We also watched two episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy: Blood and Circulation and Heart.

Posted in Ambleside Online

The January Revamp

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Deanna

As we headed back to school on Monday, I realized I’ve made quite a few changes in what we’re doing. Nothing major, but lots of little things added up to this feeling that we were starting something new. I think I did the same thing last year when we came back from Christmas break. This year I’m making an intentional effort to lighten things up and make things easier for both the kids and myself.

We’ve dropped a lot of extra history reading, and we’ve added Spelling You See back into our regular day schedule. (I don’t even really remember why we’d dropped it. I think it was because of the holidays.)

I’ve stopped beating myself up about not doing Bible lessons first thing in the morning. Our kids get plenty of Bible in the evenings with our family. So instead of trying to do something academic related to the Bible in the mornings, I’ve decided to put on a Bible video while the kids eat breakfast so they start their day thinking about the Lord, but without trying to fit in a second Bible time each day.

I’m also trying to make it a priority to go to the library each week so my preschoolers can enjoy story time, and we’ve started doing a park day with other homeschool friends right after that.

I don’t know if this is just going to be the way things are every year, doing a total revamp over the Christmas break, but think the changes we’ve made are good. I’m looking forward to settling into our new routine and seeing how the rest of our school year turns out.

Posted in Uncategorized

Word for 2015: Blessed

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Deanna

As I consider the coming year, my mind first jumps to the things I hope will come to pass. While I think it is important to hope and dream, I do not want to do so at the cost of overlooking the abundance with which the Lord has already blessed me. I considered “gratitude” or “thankfulness,” but in the end, I decided there was a more appropriate “Word for 2015” for me: Blessed.

Ever since we lost our fifth child early in my pregnancy last fall, I’ve been hoping we might still have another. Yet even if 2015 closes without any new members of our family, I don’t want to forget that I am blessed.

I dream of moving to a house with a big yard so my kids can spend more time outside each day. Yet even if we head into 2016 still in our mobile home, I am blessed.

Life is fragile. I know too well how quickly things can change, as our family has lost several loved ones over the last few years. If in the next twelve months we have to say good-bye yet again, we are still blessed.

I want to to walk through 2015 with this word at the forefront of my mind as I go about my daily life. I don’t know what this year will hold for me, but I do know this:

And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them (Psalm 139:16b)

The Lord alone knows what is ahead, and whatever happens, I want to remember that I am …

Posted in Personal

A Week of Looking Forward

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Deanna

In the past, the week after Christmas has felt rather lifeless around our house. The kids were over the holiday excitement and all of us were eager to get back into a routine. So when I originally set our calendar for the 2014-15 school year, I planned to go back to school this week. However, over the weekend I was debating whether or not we needed more of a break.

My “Word for 2014” was PRAY, and over the past twelve months, the Lord has shown me how faithful He is to guide me when I take the time to ask. It is a lesson I certainly need to continue to take to heart, but I feel like a good foundation has been laid so that in the future I will be more inclined to remember to pray before making decisions.

As I sought the Lord about how to spend this week, I strongly felt that we should deviate from my original plans (which I admittedly had NOT prayed about when drawing up our calendar) and take one more week off from any school work. Instead I have found myself tackling organizational projects around the house that will help our family life run more smoothly over the next few months.

For instance, I spent two days sorting through hand-me-downs from friends as well as clothes my kids had outgrown that had never been put away properly. When I started, there were several trash bags of mixed sizes. Now everything is put away in storage tubs clearly labeled by size, ready to be worn by the next child in line. (Plus I filled a couple bags to give away, since we had way too many clothes in certain sizes.)

I also started thinking about ways I can be more intentional about keeping my little ones busy during our school hours. Up until now, Nico has blessed us by taking a long morning nap that allowed us to get through most of our work uninterrupted. I know those days are numbered, however, so I started looking for various ways to entertain him. Even if I just come up with five activities and then rotate them each day of the week, I think that would help us get through math (our most crucial time.)

He really liked putting dominoes into a can with a slot cut into the lid.

I think he might have emptied our entire domino bin if Arianna hadn’t come over to “help” him. (Note to self: find an activity to occupy HER at the same time.) She could probably handle most of the activities I listed in “Entertaining Elijah (Tips for Toddlers)” back when we first started schooling with a younger sibling to occupy.

Elijah and Arianna used to play together for most of the morning every day, but lately he’s been wanting to join us for math. Arianna plays by herself better than my older boys did at her age, but sometimes she prefers to be in with us, and I want to have activities ready to give her when that happens.

My hope is that by taking this week to get things a little more organized around the house, we’ll be able to transition back into our school routine smoothly. I made a few changes in our curriculum over the last few weeks of school, and I hope to spend the next few days adjusting my weekly lesson plan to make sure I’ve taken out the things we’re no longer using and found time for those we’re just beginning. I’m thankful that the Lord prompted me to delay our return to school, and now I find myself looking forward to the months ahead.

Posted in Personal

Let There Be Light by Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Book Review)

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Deanna

I love finding books the help my children think more about the Bible, so I was pleased to get a chance to review Let There Be Light by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, illustrated by New York Times bestselling author Nancy Tillman. We received the board book edition, but it is also available in hardcover.

Let There Be Light retells the story of Genesis chapter 1 in beautifully descriptive language. The book goes through each day of creation, beginning with God all alone before anything else exists, and ending on the seventh day, with God resting and enjoying what He has created.

Bible purists might take issue with a few things. First, after God creates the light, Tutu writes, “And there was day. And there was night. And when the first day was done, God smiled and knew that it was good.” The Bible puts the night first (“And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” Genesis 1:5), which is why Jewish days begin at sundown.

At the end of the book, God makes “people,” rather than a man and woman, and for the seventh day Tutu writes, “God laughed, and rested…” These details don’t necessarily contradict the Scriptural account, but they might be taking more liberty than would make some people comfortable.

The last page simply states, “You are loved.” It’s the way Nancy Tillman ends all her children’s books, but since she is the illustrator, not the author, I’m not sure why it was included in Let There Be Light. It is a wonderful truth, but it seems a bit out of place considering the rest of the text.

Still, this is a beautiful book, and I didn’t hesitate to share it with my children (though I would discuss the issues mentioned above with them as they are old enough to understand). Tillman’s illustrations are unique and eye-catching, reflecting the glory of God’s creation and helping the reader marvel at the beauty of the world He has given us.

BookLook disclaimer

Posted in Book reviews

Advent 2014 – Day 24

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Deanna

We are definitely winding down in these final days. We still have one more night (and then Christmas Day) in the Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge as well as finishing Jotham’s Journey, but I’m not planning to blog any more until after Christmas.

Advent has been a wonderful time of celebration, and I think we’re all ready for its culmination. While I’m looking forward to lots of family time, I’m especially eager for our candlelight service at church tomorrow night. Our children have learned several carols during the last few weeks, and I hope we will all enjoy coming together with our church family to celebrate together.

O God, our loving Father, help us rightly to remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the songs of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men. May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children, and the Christmas evening bring us to our beds with Grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake. —Robert Louis Stevenson

Posted in Holidays

Advent 2014 – Day 23

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Deanna

Daily Theme: Mary
Books: We were on book overload, so I decided to just do a family book today. We read Mary, Did You Know? by Mark Lowry, illustrated by Phil Boatwright during the Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge, and then Ian built an angel and a heart while we read from Jotham’s Journey.